Recently the Ministry of Roads Transport and Communications made an announcement that the charges for combies, taxis, buses, etcetera, have been hiked up by a substantial amount yet as customers we are still receiving very poor customer service from those who are supposed to be delivering it.
From several conversations that I had with these people who are predominantly men, another gender issue, it became clear that none of them know that they are running the service under the Ministry of Roads Transport and Communications, therefore every time they treat a customer badly it simply reflects very badly on that ministry.
There is an ever growing gap in Botswana between the rich and the poor, the educated and the uneducated and the enlightened and the not so enlightened and so on.
Just because a certain ministry or somebody in a significant position fails to educate a certain sector of people the whole country suffers. I have had the opportunity to travel to countries like England where the transport service compared to this country’s is five star.
British people, regardless of gender, economic class, ethnic background, and how ever else people may be boxed in different categories, enjoy the privilege of being able to park their cars at home and enjoy a customer-focused public transport service. It seems like our former colonisers put their people first, one would have thought the first point of benchmarking for Botswana government would be the United Kingdom but, instead, as Batswana, we rather than sort our problems out, problems as simple as a reliable public focused transport system, we rather hate our own country and flee to go and live in other countries to enjoy what we cannot sort out in our own country.
As a people, we have to know and really internalise the fact that Botswana government’s number one role is to look at the interests of its people before anything else, the people who put it there in the first place.
Is that not what democracy is?
The government seems not to care that Batswana women do not own taxis, it is a man’s job. We always hear of NGOs into which the government pours lots of money in the name of tackling gender issues; should it not be shocking that the government does not seem to hold these organisations accountable for a job badly done?
Everything is connected, a taxi driver who has never been taught good down to earth customer service will swear at a tourist.
I think we all know by now that diamonds are not invincible and that we should think we are completely secure.
Citizens who go to work in angry combies every morning can not maintain a positive attitude towards the service they provide in their different endeavours.
